Forum:Tips
While learning to play ES, I find many valuable bits and pieces of information on the forums. I'll start collecting the gems below. I suggest using a list style, so that discussion of bad info can take place directly underneath each relevant item, like so: *This is a tip. **I think this is wrong, because... *This is another tip. Note that I haven't verified the tips (yet). If you have, please advise with a sub list item, like above. General *Don't forge an alliance with AI opponents just for the sake of it. They make peace with your enemies, declare war on your friends and send pesky trade offers every other round ;) Systems & Planets *Start a system with one planet producing food, let the other planets produce Industry and later Science. *Only colonize an additional planet when the current colonies in a system are nearly full. *Match exploitation to planet type. Terraform to Terran type for Dust, Ocean for Science and Jungle for Industry. *Ignore systems with less than 4 planets early in the game, if they are not of strategic value. This helps with acceptance *Tier 1 planets (Terran, Ocean and Jungle) don't affect approval. Fleets & Ships *Bigger ships aren't necessarily better ships. Destroyers and cruisers have interesting bonuses, while tonnage expansion modules add an absolute amount of tonnage, not a percentual one. The bigger classes take more hit points, though. *Destroyers are the best damage dealers, but don't rely too much on them, especially in the early game, because they don't take much damage themselves. Cruisers are more resilient! *Remember to upgrade designs and actual ships with better items when they become available. While newly-built ships are probably cheaper to replace by scrapping and re-building from the upgraded design, experienced ships should be upgraded. Level 10 ships have double defense and six times hitpoints! *If you're low on Industry, but have plenty of Dust, build empty ship hulls and later buy the weapon upgrades for Dust. *Build ships in systems that have all currently possible fleet upgrades. The first fleet upgrade is in the upper tree in tier 2 and gives 6 experience, which bumps the ships to level 2, resulting in 5% more hitpoints and defense. *The amount of experience gained doesn't depend on the enemy. Each victory gains 2 experience, a tie gains 1 and a defeat 0.5. So attack every scout and colony ship, especially in the early game, when you are at cold war with everyone. *Rockets deal the most damages, if they hit. Always add enough flak cannons to counter all rockets. Rockets can only be fired once per phase. *Kinetic weapons are short range weapons. Since battles are usually decided in the first two phases, go for beam weapons and don't add kinetic defense. *Add defense agains rockets and lasers. Ignore kinetic. *If available, go for battleships and if the fleet cap is odd, add one destroyer. *Fit one repair module per ship. *Most of the time, choose nano repair cards. If the enemy fleet has too much of one weapon and you cannot counter it, choose barrier in the first phase. *Go for defensive cards. *Skip speed, invasion and armor modules, max out offense and defense. *Terraform the planets in your ship yard systems to Desert type to max out production. *Use "glass canon" destroyers in the early game: Fill with rockets and the +15% damage module and nothing else. Deals much damage, but is easily destroyed, like glass. Heroes *Administrators are very useful to boost early game systems. *While expanding mid-game, use propaganda specialists to temporarily break strikes and build approval boosting buildings. *Heroes are more useful on fleets than in systems later in the game. One or two administrators in key systems can help the early game, but as more and more systems contribute to the FIDS pool, each hero's influence on the total FIDS production becomes smaller and smaller. *For fleet heroes, don't skill cards. Start with 7% dodging chance (?, Ausweichchance) if available for the hero, then go for defense, veteran, cyber*, then offense and finally all skills that support defense or offense. Research *Generally, research roughly in circles around the tech trees. Only beeline to important gems, like the approval buildings, Applied Casimir Effect, Fleet Cap etc. Sources The following forum threads were digested into this page: *http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?9559-Anf%E4ngerfragen-zum-Spiel/page12 Page or post numbers in the links indicate how far those threads have been processed.